The chief minister has requested IBM and Tata Consultancy Services to set up finishing schools in the state to increase employability of engineering graduates.

“There are so many engineering colleges in Bengal. What we need now are training centres to make engineers readily employable,” said Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Thursday. He was speaking at the inauguration of IBM’s fourth facility in the city.

Currently, around 700 employees work at the facility at DLF IT Park in Rajarhat. It will accommodate 3,000 people once the set-up is fully staffed.

“We have noted the chief minister’s suggestion and we will approach him with a proposal,” said Amitabh Roy, vice-president, consulting and application services, IBM India.

IBM India, with over 43,000 employees across 14 cities in the country, is one of the fastest growing companies in Calcutta. Taking together IT and IT-enabled services, it has 4,000-plus headcount across four facilities in the city.

“The attrition rates here are one of the lowest in the country…We have experienced rapid growth post PricewaterhouseCoopers and Daksh acquisition,” said Shanker Annaswamy, managing director, IBM India.

In its new centre, IBM will ramp up technical talent in areas such as SAP, mainframe, web technologies and business consulting.

Passport help: South 24-Parganas police launched www.south24pgspolice.com on Thursday to help passport applicants. The status of an application will be available on the website.